UAA welcomes hundreds of new students to on-campus housing for the Fall semester

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - College move in day - it's a nerve wracking, but exciting time. This year, there are a bit more nerves as a new batch of students enter into a new semester amidst uncertainty surrounding the University of Alaska system.

About 600 fresh faces are moving into on-campus housing at UAA through Sunday, ahead of classes starting Monday. Maureen Meyer and her parents drove a camper down from Fairbanks to help Maureen get settled into her new place.

"I'm really excited to just meet new people and try to find things that I'm interested in and learn more about what I want to do," said Meyer.

The governor, legislature, and university leaders finally came to an agreement for funding the university with less cuts than originally proposed, but some are still wary entering the new school year.

There were concerns at first for Maureen and her parents as her decision to come to UAA for a fine arts degree was made during deep budget uncertainties for the university system.

"That has been a little nerve wracking getting emails and everything and hearing about how the budget cuts would affect my financial aid, but so far, I think everything has been settled," said Maureen ."They made sure that I know that I'm still getting financial aid so that's good."

However Maureen's father, Richard Meyer, says there are still some concerns heading into the Fall semester.

"I just hope those continue because she did make the decision to come to UAA and it wouldn't be right to have the rug pulled out from under her at the last minute," said Richard Meyer.

Incoming sophomore, Sarah Shinstine, is a transfer student from Wyoming. She says she said it was tough staying updated on the university system's financial status from afar, but didn't let any of the uncertainty stop her from coming to Alaska, a place she's dreamed of living since she was little.

"It definitely scared me, just because I still feel kind of out of the loop with all of it, living so far away from it all, but it wasn't going to stop me from coming so it didn't scare me that bad," said Shinestine.

Freshman will be moving into their on-campus housing over the next few days until classes get started on Monday.

In the meantime, university officials are still considering a plan to consolidate the three universities as a way to ease financial stress. The board of regents are set to discuss this at a meeting in September.

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